Posts Tagged ‘impermanence’

The Guest House This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, Some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! . . . The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. — Jalal Al-Din Rumi

This is one of the hardest truths to recognize, that one remains the same —thatwhatsoever we do, we remain the same. There is no “improvement.” The whole ego isshattered because the ego lives through improvement, the idea of improvement, theidea of reaching somewhere someday. Maybe not today but tomorrow, or the day aftertomorrow. To recognize the fact that there is no improvement in the world, that life isjust a celebration, it has nothing like business in it —once you understand this, thewhole ego trip stops, and suddenly you are thrown back to this moment.
Rest in natural great peace

This exhausted mind

Beaten helpless by karma and neurotic thought, Like the relentless fury of the pounding waves In the infinite ocean of samsara.

“All things in the universe are impermanent…” says Yoka. So don′t be worried. All things are impermanent: pleasure and pain, friendship and enmity, poverty and richness, success and failure, birth and death. All is in a flux, all is impermanent, so why be worried?
Everything goes on changing. Don′t cling – clinging brings misery, clinging shows your misunderstanding. The moment you cling to something, you are living with the idea that it can be permanent. Nothing can be permanent, and nothing can be done about it. It is just the nature of things to be impermanent.
You are trying to catch hold of the rainbows. They are beautiful, but you cannot catch hold of them. And one moment they are there, and another moment they are gone. So don′t cling to anything, because everything is impermanent.
And don′t desire anything – because even if you get it, you will lose it. If you don′t get it, you will be frustrated. If you get it and lose it, you will be frustrated. Either way you will be in misery, you are inviting misery. So don′t desire anything, and don′t cling to anything.
Whatsoever comes, accept it. Buddha calls it tathata, suchness. Just accept it; live through it silently, without being disturbed by it. Misery comes, it will go; happiness comes, it will go. Everything passes away, nothing abides; so there is nothing to worry about.
Go on passing through all kinds of experiences, and then you will know that one can pass through the world uncontaminated, uncorrupted. One can live in the palaces without clinging, then he is a sannyasin; and one can live in a hut and can cling to the hut, then he is not a sannyasin.
That′s why I don′t tell you to renounce the world, I simply say: be watchful. That is the essence of Buddha′s message.